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Rise in trans referrals prompts new concern for young people

The number of people expressing confusion over their ‘gender identity’ in the UK is rising, according to new data.

Freedom of Information requests reported in The Guardian newspaper indicate an increase in referrals to facilities dealing with transsexualism.

Responding to the news Simon Calvert, Deputy Director for Public Affairs at The Christian Institute, expressed concern about the “damage” being done to young people.

Rise in referrals

According to The Guardian, a facility in London’s Charing Cross has seen referrals increase in the last decade, from 498 in 2006-2007 to 1,892 in 2015-2016. One in Nottingham also reported an increase, from 30 in 2008 to 850 in 2015.

Referrals to the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust – England’s only gender identity facility for under-18s – also doubled last year, from 697 to 1,398.

Overall, the number of people who have been issued with a Gender Recognition Certificate since the 2004 Act to change their legal birth sex is under 4,500 – around 0.007 per cent of the UK population.

‘Confused’

The Christian Institute’s Simon Calvert said: “After a relentless media campaign to promote the idea that you can change sex, it is no surprise that there is an increase in the number of people reporting confusion over their ‘gender identity’.

“In 2016, if a kid questions their gender, they are not likely to get common sense advice. Instead they may get a one-way ticket to gender reassignment courtesy of radical transgender politics.

“In years to come, many of these kids are going to blame their parents, teachers and doctors for persuading them to take hormone suppressing drugs and putting them on a conveyor belt to brutal surgery”.

Children

This week the media reported that Helen Webberley, a GP in Wales, has set up a private facility where she is giving cross-sex hormones to children, one of whom is a twelve-year-old girl.

She told The Guardian that the child had been on puberty-blocking drugs since the age of nine and would ordinarily have to wait until 16 to be given testosterone.

However, the doctor has started to prescribe the drugs to the child who is only twelve, saying: “I felt and the mother felt and the child felt it was the right time”.

Consultant psychiatrist Dr James Barrett, who works at another transsexual facility, said he had concerns about giving cross-sex hormones to children because they can grow out of their confused feelings. He admitted that the administration of such drugs usually results in “lifelong medical intervention”, “surgery” and the “loss of natural fertility”.

Regret

Earlier this year, The Christian Institute spoke exclusively to author and former transsexual Walt Heyer.

He told the Institute that after undergoing a ‘sex change’ and living as a woman for eight years, he discovered his condition was psychological and changed back.

“The idea of helping people with hormones and surgery”, he said, “does far more harm to the individual long-term and is not appropriate treatment”.